On-demand language translation for television programs

ABSTRACT

In an embodiment, a method of providing an on demand translation service is provided. A subscriber may be charged a reduced fee or no fee for use of the on demand translation service in exchange for displaying commercial messages to the subscriber, the commercial messages being selected based on subscriber information. A multimedia signal including information in a source language may be received. The information may be obtained as text in the source language from the multimedia signal. The text may be translated from the source language to a target language. Translated information, based on the translated text, may be transmitted to a processing device for presentation to the subscriber. The received multimedia signal may be sent to a multimedia device for viewing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to automatic language translation from asource language to a target language, and in particular to methods,systems, and machine-readable media for use in translating informationfrom multimedia programs from a source language to a target language inreal time.

2. Introduction

Anyone who has traveled to a foreign country, in which a language he orshe understands is not spoken, has experienced a language barrier. Alanguage barrier is also experienced by a newcomer to a country in whichthe native language is not known to the newcomer. Much news andentertainment is now received via television programs. People who do notunderstand a native language of a country or region are unable to obtainnews or entertainment from media, such as local television programs. Aservice or device that makes television programs understandable topeople who do not speak the local language is needed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth herein.

In a first aspect of the invention, a method for providing an on demandtranslation service may be provided. A subscriber may be charged areduced fee or no fee for use of the on demand translation service inexchange for displaying commercial messages to the subscriber, thecommercial messages being selected based on subscriber information. Amultimedia signal including information in a source language may bereceived. The information may be obtained as text in the source languagefrom the multimedia signal. The text may be translated from the sourcelanguage to a target language. Translated information, based on thetranslated text, may be transmitted to a processing device forpresentation to the subscriber. The received multimedia signal may besent to a multimedia device for viewing.

Subscriber information may be any type of information associated withthe subscriber. For example, it may be name, address, GPS location,preferred language, phone number or personal website data. The languagethat the subscriber chooses for translation may also be subscriberinformation. Other example information may be the substance of text thatis to be translated which can provide clues to the interests of thesubscriber, programs the subscriber is watching and so forth. In otherwords, any type of information that may provide data which can affect adecision of a more focused commercial or other messages may beconsidered subscriber information.

In a second aspect of the invention, a system for providing an on demandtranslation service may be provided. The system may include a multimediasignal receiving component, a speech recognizer, a translation module,an information transmitter, a multimedia signal transmitter, acommercial message retriever and a commercial message module. Themultimedia signal receiving component may be configured to receive amultimedia signal having an audio portion, which may include speech in asource language. The speech recognizer may be configured to obtain thespeech in the source language, from the audio portion, as text. Thetranslation module may be configured to translate the text from thesource language to a target language for the subscriber using one of agroup of language pair modules. The information transmitter may beconfigured to receive information, based on the translated text, and totransmit the information to a first processing device for presentationto the subscriber. The multimedia signal transmitter may be configuredto transmit the multimedia signal to a multimedia device for viewing.The commercial message retriever may select and obtain one or morecommercial messages based on subscriber information. The commercialmessage module may receive the one or more commercial messages from thecommercial message retriever for presentation to the subscriber.

In a third aspect of the invention, a machine-readable medium havingrecorded thereon instructions for at least one processor to provide anon demand translation service may be provided. The machine-readablemedium may include instructions for charging a subscriber a reduced feeor no fee for use of the requested on demand translation service inexchange for displaying commercial messages to the subscriber, thecommercial messages being selected based on subscriber information,instructions for receiving a multimedia signal including information ina source language, instructions for obtaining the information as text inthe source language from the multimedia signal, instructions fortranslating the text from the source language to the target language,instructions for transmitting translated information based on thetranslated text to a processing device for presentation to thesubscriber, and instructions for sending the received multimedia signalto a multimedia device for viewing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment for a firstembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary processing systemwhich may be used in implementations consistent with principles of theinvention;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are functional block diagrams that illustrateembodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 4 through 5B are flowcharts that illustrates exemplary processesthat may be used in implementations consistent with the principles ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Overview

Multimedia programs, such as, of example, television programs arebroadcast with information in a source language. The information may beclosed-captioning data for hearing-impaired television viewers,subtitles, speech, or other information. Implementations consistent withthe principles of the invention may provide a service in which atelevision signal or other multimedia signal, including information in asource language, may be received. The information may be extracted fromthe multimedia signal as text and the text may be translated from asource language to a target language. Translated information from thetext in the target language may be transmitted to a processing device,such as, for example, a portable processing device, such that viewers ofthe same multimedia program may receive translated information on theirrespective portable processing devices in their respective targetlanguages while viewing the same multimedia program together. Thetranslated information may be, for example, generated speech or textualinformation.

Exemplary on Demand Translation System

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary first embodiment of an ondemand translation system for television programs. The exemplary systemmay include a processing device 100, a television 102, an optionalnetwork 104, one or more processing devices 106 and processing device108.

Processing device 100 may receive multimedia signals, such as, forexample, television signals from a signal source, which may include atelevision signal transmitter, a cable, a satellite, or another source.Processing device 100 may obtain information in a source language fromthe television signal, translate the information from a source languageto a target language, transmit the translated information to one or moreprocessing devices 106 and transmit the television signals to television102 or another multimedia device, where the television program ormultimedia program may be viewed.

In some implementations consistent with the principles of the invention,processing device 100 may require a language pair module for a languagepair (source language/target language) of interest to a subscriber ofthe on demand translation service. A subscriber may send a request for alanguage pair module to processing device 108 via network 104. Network104 may include one or more networks, such as the Internet, a local areanetwork, a wide-area network, a Public-Switched Telephone Network(PSTN), an Ethernet network, an optical network, or other type ofnetwork. Processing device 108 may access a data storage repositorywhich may include the requested language pair module and, in oneimplementation, may download the language pair module to processingdevice 100. In another implementation, processing device 108 may installthe requested language pair module into a local translation module fortranslating a source language to a target language.

In one implementation of the system of FIG. 1, processing device 100 maybe a set-top box. Processing device 106 may be, for example, a laptopcomputer, a notebook computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) orother processing device.

Although the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 includes only one processingdevice 108 and only one processing device 100, other embodiments mayinclude more or fewer processing devices. For example, an embodiment mayinclude multiple processing devices 100, each having one or moreassociated processing devices 108. Further, embodiments may include oneor more groups of processing devices 108, which may be arranged as oneor more server farms.

Exemplary System

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary processing system 200 which may be usedto implement processing devices 100, 106, or 108. Processing system 200may include a bus 210, a processor 220, a memory 230, a read only memory(ROM) 240, a storage device 250, an input device 260, an output device270, and a communication interface 280. Bus 210 may permit communicationamong the components of processing system 200.

Processor 220 may include at least one conventional processor ormicroprocessor that interprets and executes instructions. Memory 230 maybe a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storagedevice that stores information and instructions for execution byprocessor 220. Memory 230 may also store temporary variables or otherintermediate information used during execution of instructions byprocessor 220. ROM 240 may include a conventional ROM device or anothertype of static storage device that stores static information andinstructions for processor 220. Storage device 250 may include any typeof media, such as, for example, magnetic or optical recording media andits corresponding drive. In one implementation of processing device 108,storage device 250 may include a data storage repository for a number oflanguage pair modules.

Input device 260 may include one or more conventional mechanisms thatpermit a user to input information to system 200, such as a keyboard, amouse, a pen, a voice recognition device, a microphone, a headset, etc.Output device 270 may include one or more conventional mechanisms thatoutput information to the user, including a display, a printer, one ormore speakers, a headset, an earphone, or a medium, such as a memory, ora magnetic or optical disk and a corresponding disk drive. Communicationinterface 280 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enablesprocessing device 200 to communicate via a network. For example,communication interface 280 may include a modem, or an Ethernetinterface for communicating via a local area network (LAN).Alternatively, communication interface 280 may include other mechanismsfor communicating with other devices and/or systems via wired, wirelessor optical connections.

Processing system 200 may perform such functions in response toprocessor 220 executing sequences of instructions contained in acomputer-readable medium, such as, for example, memory 230, a magneticdisk, or an optical disk. Such instructions may be read into memory 230from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 250, orfrom a separate device via communication interface 280.

Processing system 200 may be, for example, a personal computer (PC), orany other type of processing device capable of processing textual orspeech data. In alternative implementations, such as, for example, adistributed processing implementation, a group of processing devices 200may communicate with one another via a network such that variousprocessors may perform operations pertaining to different aspects of theparticular implementation.

Embodiments of the Invention

FIG. 3A illustrates a functional block diagram of an exemplary firstembodiment 300 of the invention, shown in FIG. 1. Exemplary firstembodiment 300 may include processing device 108, processing device 100,network 104 and one or more processing device(s) 106 (not shown in FIG.3A). Processing device 108 may include an account checker 308, alanguage pair request receiver 310, a language pair module downloader312 and a data storage repository 314. Processing device 100 may includea language pair requester 316, a multimedia signal receiving component318, an information obtainer 320, a translation module 322, an optionalinformation preparer module 323, a commercial message module 325, aninformation transmitter 326 and a multimedia signal transmitter 324.

Processing device 100 may be located locally with respect to television102 or other multimedia device and processing device(s) 106. Processingdevice 100 may be a device that receives a multimedia signal and outputsa multimedia signal to television 102. Processing device 108 may belocated remotely from television 102. Processing device 108 may haveaccess to language pair modules for downloading to processing device 100in exchange for a fee. For example, a subscriber may pay a periodic fee,such as monthly, weekly, semiannually, or other suitable periodicperiod, for use of one or more language pair modules. Alternatively, thesubscriber may be permitted use of the one or more language pair modulesfor free in exchange for agreeing to receive commercial messages, whichmay be sent to television 102 or other multimedia device from processingdevice 100 or may be sent to processing device(s) 106 from processingdevice 100 for presentation to the subscriber.

Language pair requester 316 of processing device 108 may include a userinterface that permits a subscriber to request a language pair modulefrom language pair request receiver 310 of processing device 106 vianetwork 104. In one implementation, the subscriber may interact withlanguage pair requester 316 of processing device 100 by using a remotecontrol unit or processing device and viewing and selecting from a menugenerated by processing device 100 onto a screen of television 102 orother multimedia device. In another implementation, the subscriber mayinteract with language pair requester 316 via buttons, a keyboard, orother input means connected to processing device 100.

Language pair requester 316 may communicate with language pair requestreceiver 310 of processing device 108 via network 104. Using languagepair requester 316, a subscriber may be presented with a number oflanguage pair modules from which to choose. Each language pair modulemay have an associated source language and an associated targetlanguage. For example, one language pair module may be associated withFrench as a source language and English as a target language and may beused to translate French text to English text.

Language pair request receiver 310 of processing device 106 may receivethe language pair request from processing device 100 via network 104 andmay inform account checker 308 of the request. Account checker 308 mayaccess data storage repository 314, which may include an accountdatabase and may determine whether the subscriber is authorized to usethe requested language pair and may update the subscriber's informationin the account database, such as, for example, a fee to charge therequesting subscriber. The fee may be based, at least in part, on anamount of time the requested language pair module is to be available foruse by the subscriber, a number of language pair modules to be madeavailable to the subscriber, or particular ones of the language pairmodules used by the subscriber. Other fee determination schemes may beused in other implementations. In some implementations, a subscriber maybe charged a reduced fee or no fee in exchange for agreeing to receivecommercial messages either on television 102 or other multimedia deviceor on processing device(s) 106.

Language pair request receiver 310 may inform language pair moduledownloader to load the requested language pair module to requestingprocessing device 100. Language pair module downloader 312 may thenaccess data storage repository 314, which may include a number oflanguage pair modules, each having an associated source language and anassociated target language. Language pair module downloader 312 may thendownload the requested language pair module, via network 104, toprocessing device 100, where the language pair module may be installedfor use with translation module 322.

Multimedia signal receiving component 318 of processing device 100 mayreceive a multimedia signal, such as, for example, a television signal,which may include information in a source language. The information inthe source language may include, for example, text captioning,subtitles, speech, or other data. Information obtainer 320 may obtainthe information from the television signal as text in the sourcelanguage. In one implementation, information obtainer 320 may include anautomatic speech recognizer (ASR), which may recognize speech in asource language in the multimedia signal and may produce correspondingtext. In another implementation, information obtainer 320 may recognizetext captioning in the multimedia signal and may produce thecorresponding text. In yet another implementation, information obtainermay include an optical character recognizer (OCR) to perform characterrecognition on graphical characters, such as used for subtitles, toproduce text. In an implementation in which information obtainer 320includes an ASR, processor 108 may obtain a source language model forspeech recognition from, for example, data repository 312, fordownloading to the ASR included within information obtainer 320 ofprocessing device 100.

Translation module 322 may translate the text in the source language totext in the target language. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/058,995, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 30,2002, discloses a method, which may be used with implementations of theinvention, for translating a source language to a target language. U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/058,995 is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

Optional information provider 323 may receive the target language textas input and may change the text to another form. For example, in oneembodiment, information provider 323 may include a speech generator forgenerating speech in the target language. In such an embodiment,processing device 108 may obtain a speech generation model from datastorage repository 314 and may download the speech generation module toprocessing device 100 for use with information provider 323.

Information transmitter 326 may then transmit information, such as, forexample, generated speech in the target language or the text in thetarget language to at least one of processing device(s) 106 viawireless, optical, wired, or other suitable means. Multimedia signaltransmitter 326 may provide the multimedia signal to television 102 oranother multimedia device. In an implementation in which informationtransmitter 326 transmits signals including generated speech, processingdevice(s) 106 may include a headset, speakers, an earphone, or the like,such that the subscriber may hear the generated speech. In animplementation in which information transmitter 326 transmits signalsincluding text, processing device(s) 106 may include a display screenfor displaying received text.

Further, in some implementations, processing device 100 may introduce adelay, such that the information is transmitted to processing device(s)106 at an appropriate time with respect to the multimedia signal beingtransmitted to television 102 or another multimedia device.

As previously mentioned, in some implementations a subscriber may becharged a reduced fee or no fee for the on-demand language translationservice in exchange for agreeing to receive commercial messages. In suchimplementations, commercial message retriever 315 may search a databaseof commercial messages for commercial messages that may be of interestto the subscriber based on the subscriber's account information. Forexample, commercial message retriever 315 may find commercial messagesfor local Italian restaurants for subscribers who have selected Italianas a target language, or commercial message retriever 315 may findcommercial messages for kosher-style delicatessens for subscribers whohave selected Hebrew as a target language.

Commercial message retriever 315 may transmit the selected one or morecommercial messages, via network 104 to commercial message module 325 ofprocessing device 100.

Commercial message module 325 may determine when one or more of thecommercial messages are to be presented to the subscriber and may sendthe one or more commercial messages to translation module 322.Translation module 322 may determine whether the commercial message isalready in the target language and, if not, may translate the one ormore commercial messages to the target language. The one or morecommercial messages may then be sent to information preparer 323 andinformation transmitter 326 for transmission to processing device 106,The one or more commercial messages may be presented to the subscribervia processing device 106 as text on a display or as generated speech.

FIG. 3A is a functional block diagram of an exemplary embodiment. Otherembodiments may include more or fewer components. For example, in oneembodiment, a group of processing devices 108 may be arranged in aserver farm to serve multiple on demand translation requests frommultiple subscribers. In another embodiment, processing device 100 mayhave multiple translation modules 322 and multiple informationtransmitters 326 for performing multiple translations and sendingmultiple translated information to processing devices 106. Thus,multiple viewers may be presented with translations in different targetlanguages on their respective processing devices 106.

FIG. 3B illustrates a functional block diagram corresponding to a secondembodiment 350 consistent with the principles of the invention.Exemplary second embodiment 350 may include processing device 108,processing device 100, network 104 and one or more processing devices106 (not shown in FIG. 3B). Processing device 108 may include an accountchecker 308, a language pair module downloader 312, a translation module322, a communication module 328, a data storage repository 314 and acommercial message retriever 315. Processing device 100 may include amultimedia signal receiving component 318, an information obtainer 320,a network communication module 321, an optional information preparermodule 323, an information transmitter 326 and a multimedia signaltransmitter 324.

Processing device 100 may be located locally with respect to television102 and processing device(s) 106. Processing device 100 may be a devicethat receives a multimedia signal, such as, for example, a televisionsignal and outputs the multimedia signal to television 102, or othermultimedia device. Processing device 108 may be located remotely fromtelevision 102. Processing device 108 may have access to language pairmodules for loading and installing to translation module 322. Asubscriber may pay a periodic fee, such as monthly, weekly,semiannually, or another suitable time period for use of one or morelanguage pair modules. Alternatively, the subscriber may be permitteduse of the one or more language pair modules for a reduced fee or no feein exchange for agreeing to receive commercial messages, which may besent to television 102 or other multimedia device from processing device100 or may be sent to processing device(s) 106 from processing device100.

Communication module 328 may receive a translation request via network104 from network communication module 321 of processing device 100 fortranslation services. Account checker 308 may access data storagerepository 314, which may include an account database and may determinewhat language pair the subscriber is configured to use. Account checker308 may update the subscriber's information in the account database,such as, for example, a fee to charge the requesting subscriber for useof the particular language pair module. The fee may be based, at leastin part, on an amount of time the requested language pair module is tobe available for use by the subscriber, a number of language pairmodules to be made available to the subscriber, or particular ones ofthe language pair modules used by the subscriber. Other feedetermination schemes may be used in other implementations. In someimplementations, a subscriber may not be charged a fee or may be chargesa reduced fee in exchange for agreeing to receive commercial messageseither on television 102 or other multimedia device, or on processingdevice(s) 106.

Account checker 308 may inform language pair module downloader 312 toload and install the requested language pair module to translationmodule 322 of processing device 108. In some implementations, processingdevice 108 may include multiple translation modules 322 using respectivelanguage pair modules for various subscribers. Language pair moduledownloader 312 may access data storage repository 314, which may includea number of language pair modules, each having an associated sourcelanguage and an associated target language. Language pair moduledownloader 312 may then load and install the language pair module totranslation module 322.

Multimedia signal receiving component 318 of processing device 100 mayreceive a multimedia signal, such as, for example, a television signal,which may include information in a source language. The information inthe source language may include, for example, text captioning,subtitles, speech, or other data. Information obtainer 320 may obtainthe information from the television signal as text in the sourcelanguage. In one implementation, information obtainer 320 may include anautomatic speech recognizer (ASR), which may recognize speech in asource language in the multimedia signal and may produce correspondingtext. In another implementation, information obtainer 320 may recognizetext captioning in the multimedia signal and may produce thecorresponding text. In yet another implementation, information obtainermay include an optical character recognizer (OCR) to perform characterrecognition on graphical characters, such as used for subtitles, toproduce text. In an implementation in which information obtainer 320includes an ASR, processor 108 may obtain a source language model forspeech recognition from, for example, data repository 314, fordownloading to the ASR included within information obtainer 320 ofprocessing device 100.

Network communication module 321 may transmit information including thetext in the source language to communication module 328 of processingdevice 108 via network 104. Translation module 322 may translate thetext in the source language to text in the target language. After thetext is translated by translation module 322 to the target language,communication module 328 may transmit the text in the target language,via network 104, to network communication module 321 of processingdevice 100.

Optional information provider 323 may receive the target language textas input from network communication module 321 and may change the textto another form. For example, in one embodiment, information provider323 may include a speech generator for generating speech in the targetlanguage. In such an embodiment, processing device 108 may obtain aspeech generation model from data storage repository 314 and maydownload the speech generation module to processing device 100 for usewith information provider 323.

Information transmitter 326 may then transmit information, such as, forexample, generated speech in the target language or the text in thetarget language to at least one of processing device(s) 106 viawireless, optical, wired, or other suitable means. Multimedia signaltransmitter 324 may provide the multimedia signal to television 102, orother multimedia device. In an implementation in which informationtransmitter 326 transmits signals including generated speech, processingdevice(s) 106 may include a headset, speakers, an earphone, or the like,such that the subscriber may hear the generated speech. In animplementation in which information transmitter 326 transmits signalsincluding text, processing device(s) 106 may include a display screenfor displaying received text.

As previously mentioned, in some implementations a subscriber may becharged a reduced fee or no fee for the on-demand language translationservice in exchange for agreeing to receive commercial messages. In suchimplementations, commercial message retriever 315 may search a databaseof commercial messages for commercial messages that may be of interestto the subscriber based on the subscriber's account information. Forexample, commercial message retriever 315 may find commercial messagesfor local French restaurants for subscribers who have selected French asa target language, or commercial message retriever 315 may findcommercial messages for Chinese restaurants for subscribers who haveselected a Chinese dialect as a target language.

Commercial message retriever 315 may transmit the selected one or morecommercial messages, via network 104 to commercial message module 325 ofprocessing device 100.

Commercial message module 325 may determine when one or more of thecommercial messages are to be presented to the subscriber and may sendthe one or more commercial messages to network communication module 321.Network communication module 321 may determine whether the commercialmessage is already in the target language and, if not, may transmit theone or more commercial messages to translation module 322 fortranslation to the target language. The one or more commercial messagesmay then be sent to information preparer 323 and information transmitter326 for transmission to processing device 106, The one or morecommercial messages may be presented to the subscriber via processingdevice 106 as text on a display or as generated speech.

FIG. 3B is a functional block diagram of an exemplary embodiment. Otherembodiments may include more or fewer components. For example, in oneembodiment, a group of processing devices 108 may be arranged in aserver farm to serve multiple on demand translation requests frommultiple subscribers. In another embodiment, processing device 108 mayhave multiple translation modules 322 for performing multipletranslations and processing device 100 may have multiple informationtransmitters 326 and for sending multiple translated information toprocessing devices 106. Thus, multiple viewers may be presented withtranslations in different target languages on their respectiveprocessing devices 106.

Exemplary Process

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process that may be used inimplementations consistent with the principles of the invention. Theprocess may begin by determining and charging a fee for use of theon-demand translation service (act 404). The fee may be charged on aperiodic basis, such as, for example, monthly, weekly, semiannually,annually, or any other suitable periodic time period. In someimplementations, a subscriber may not be charged a fee, or may becharged a reduced fee in exchange for agreeing to receiving commercialmessages.

Next, multimedia signal receiving component 318 may receive a multimediasignal, such as, for example, a television signal that may includeinformation in a source language (act 410). The information may include,for example, text captioning, subtitles, speech, or other data.Information obtainer 320 may obtain the information as text from thereceived television signal (act 412). For example, if the information isspeech, information obtainer 320 may include an ASR for obtaining textfrom the speech. If the information is graphic information, such as, forexample, subtitles, information obtainer 320 may include an opticalcharacter recognizer (OCR) for converting the graphic subtitles to text.

Translation module 322 may then translate the source language text totarget language text (act 414). In embodiment 300 translation module maybe included in processing device 100. In embodiment 350, networkcommunication module 321 may receive the obtained text from informationobtainer 320 and may transmit the text to communication module 328 ofprocessing device 108. Translation module 322 of processing device 108may translate the text to a target language and may pass the text backto communication module 328 for transmission to network communicationmodule 321 via network 104.

Optional information preparer 323 may obtain the translated text fromnetwork communication module 321 and may change the text to a differentform. In some implementations, information preparer 323 may include aspeech generator and may convert the text to generated speech in thetarget language. Information transmitter 326 may then transmit thetranslated information to processing device(s) 106 (act 416). Multimediasignal transmitter 326 may send the multimedia signal to television 102or other multimedia device, where the multimedia program may be viewed(act 418). Acts 410 through 418 may then be performed repeatedly.

FIG. 5A is a flowchart that illustrates an exemplary process that may beperformed in processing device 108 of embodiments 300 or 350. Theprocess may begin with commercial message retriever 315 obtainingaccount information for a subscriber from an account database withindata storage repository 314 (act 502). Commercial message retriever 315may then search a commercial database within data storage repository 314for commercial message that may be of interest to the subscriber basedon account information, such as selected target language(s) or and/oraddress information (act 504). Commercial message retriever 315 may thentransmit the one or more found commercial messages to commercial messagemodule 325 via network 104 (act 506).

FIG. 5B is a flowchart that illustrates an exemplary process that may beperformed in processing device 100 of embodiments 300 or 350, in whichthe exemplary process of FIG. 5A is also performed. The process maybegin with commercial message module 325 determining whether one or morecommercial messages are to be presented to the subscriber (act 510).Commercial message module 325 may determine that one or more commercialmessages are to be presented periodically (for example, every 60minutes, or another suitable time period), or may determine that one ormore commercial messages may be presented at certain times during theday on certain days of the week, or some other criteria.

If commercial message module 325 determines that one or more commercialmessages are to be presented, then commercial message module 325 mayobtain the one or more commercial messages (act 512) and may provide theone or more commercial messages to translation module 322 (embodiment300) or network communication module 321 (embodiment 350). Next,translation module 322 (embodiment 300) or network communication module321 (embodiment 350) may determine whether the commercial message isalready in the target language (act 514). This may be achieved bychecking a language code included within the one or more commercialmessages or by other means, such as, for example, matching words in theone or more commercial messages to words in a target languagedictionary. If the one or more commercial messages are to be translated,then translation module 322 may perform the translation to producetarget language text (embodiment 300) or network communication module321 may transmit the one or more commercial messages to translationmodule 322 via network 104 for translation and may receive thetranslated text via network 104 (embodiment 350) (act 516).

Next, translation module 322 (embodiment 300) or network communicationmodule 321 (embodiment 350) may provide the commercial message text inthe target language to information preparer 323, which may change thetranslated text to another form, as previously discussed, which may thenprovide the one or more commercial messages to information transmitter326 for transmission to processing device 106 and presentation to thesubscriber (act 518). Acts 510 through 518 may then be repeated at alater time.

In accordance with the embodiments of FIGS. 3A and 3B, processing device100 may store received multimedia signals in memory 230 and may lookahead to stored information received after the current multimedia signalbeing processed. Thus, processing device 100 may introduce a delaybetween the time a multimedia signal is received by processing device100 and a time that the television signal is delivered to television 102or other multimedia device.

CONCLUSION

The above-described embodiments are exemplary and are not limiting withrespect to the scope of the invention. Embodiments within the scope ofthe present invention may also include computer-readable media forcarrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structuresstored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available mediathat can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media cancomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means inthe form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. Wheninformation is transferred or provided over a network or anothercommunications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combinationthereof) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as acomputer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of the computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of theinvention may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Although the above description may contain specific details, they shouldnot be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurationsof the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope ofthis invention. Further, in other implementations, hardwired logic maybe used instead of processors, or one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs) may be used in implementations consistentwith the principles of the invention. In addition, implementationsconsistent with the principles of the invention may have more or feweracts than as described, or may implement acts in a different order thanas shown. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalentsshould only define the invention, rather than any specific examplesgiven.

1. A method of providing an on demand translation service, the methodcomprising: charging a subscriber a reduced fee for use of the on demandtranslation service in exchange for displaying commercial messages tothe subscriber at a predetermined periodic time on a predetermined dayof the week, the commercial messages being selected based on subscriberinformation; receiving a multimedia signal including information in asource language; obtaining the information as text in the sourcelanguage from the multimedia signal; translating the text from thesource language to a target language; transmitting translatedinformation based on the translated text to a processing device forpresentation to the subscriber; and sending the received multimediasignal to a multimedia device for viewing.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the processing device is a handheld processing device.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein obtaining the information as text from themultimedia signal further comprises: performing speech recognition onspeech in an audio portion of the multimedia signal to produce the textin the source language.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:generating speech in the target language based on the translated text,wherein transmitting translated information based on the translated textto the processing device comprises transmitting signals including thegenerated speech to the processing device.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein translating the text from the source language to the targetlanguage by use of the translation module further comprises:transmitting the text to a remote processing device via a network;translating the text from the source language to the target language byusing the translation module of the remote processing device; andreceiving the translated text sent via the network from the remoteprocessing device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein an amount of thefee is based, at least in part, on a number of language pair modulesused.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the text from thesource language to the target language is performed in a set-top boxconfigured to receive the multimedia signal including the information inthe source language.
 8. A system for providing an on demand translationservice, the system comprising: a multimedia signal receiving componentconfigured to receive a multimedia signal having an audio portion, theaudio portion including speech in a source language; a speech recognizerconfigured to obtain the speech in the source language, from the audioportion, as text; a translation module configured to translate the textfrom the source language to a target language for the subscriber usingone of a plurality of language pair modules; an information transmitterconfigured to receive information, based on the translated text, and totransmit the information to a first processing device for presentationto the subscriber; a multimedia signal transmitter configured totransmit the multimedia signal to a multimedia device for viewing; acommercial message retriever for selecting and obtaining one or morecommercial messages based on subscriber information; and a commercialmessage module for receiving the one or more selected commercialmessages from the commercial message retriever for presentation to thesubscriber at a predetermined periodic time on a predetermined day ofthe week.
 9. The system of claim 8, further comprising: a speechgenerator configured to generate speech from the text in the targetlanguage, wherein the information transmitter is further configured totransmit signals including the generated speech to the first processingdevice.
 10. The system of claim 8, further comprising: a secondprocessing device, wherein the second processing device includes themultimedia signal receiving component, the speech recognizer, thetranslation module, the information transmitter, the multimedia signaltransmitter and the commercial message module.
 11. The system of claim10, further comprising: a third processing device located remotely fromthe second processing device, the third processing device furthercomprising: a data storage repository for storing a plurality oflanguage pair modules, each of the plurality of language pair moduleshaving an associated source language and an associated target language,and a language pair module downloader for downloading one of theplurality of language pair modules to the second processing device foruse with the translation module.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein thesecond processing device is a set-top box.
 13. The system of claim 8,further comprising: a second processing device including the multimediasignal receiving component, the speech recognizer, a networkcommunication module, the information transmitter, the commercialmessage module and the multimedia transmitter; and a third processingdevice located remotely from the second processing device, the thirdprocessing device including a communication module, the translationmodule and the commercial message retriever, wherein: the networkcommunication module is configured to: receive the text in the sourcelanguage from the speech recognizer and transmit the text via a networkto the communication module of the third processing device, and receivethe translated text in the target language from the third processingmodule; and the communication module is configured to: receive the textin the source language via the network, provide the text to thetranslation module for translating to the target language, receive thetranslated text in the target language from the translation module, andtransmit the translated text to the network communication module of thesecond processing device.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the thirdprocessing device further comprises: a data storage repository forstoring a plurality of language pair modules, each of the plurality oflanguage pair modules having an associated source language and anassociated target language, and the plurality of language pair modulesbeing arranged for use with the translation module.
 15. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the second processing device is a set-top box.
 16. Anon-transitory machine-readable storage medium having recorded thereoninstructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause theat least one processor to provide an on demand translation service, theinstructions comprising: charging a subscriber a reduced fee for use ofthe requested on demand translation service in exchange for displayingcommercial messages to the subscriber at a predetermined periodic timeon a predetermined day of the week, the commercial messages beingselected based on subscriber information; receiving a multimedia signalincluding information in a source language; obtaining the information astext in the source language from the multimedia signal; translating thetext from the source language to the target language; transmittingtranslated information based on the translated text to a processingdevice for presentation to the subscriber; and sending the receivedmultimedia signal to a multimedia device for viewing.
 17. Thenon-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein theinstructions for obtaining the information as text in the sourcelanguage from the multimedia signal further comprise: performing speechrecognition on speech in an audio portion of the multimedia signal toproduce the text in the source language.
 18. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the instructions furthercomprising: generating speech in the target language based on thetranslated text, wherein transmitting signals including the generatedspeech to the processing device.
 19. The non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium of claim 16, the instructions further comprising:transmitting the text to a remote processing device via a network fortranslation; and receiving the translated text via the network from theremote processing device.